Poem

This poem as I see it, is a warning to humans that mother nature can give and she can take. Mother nature, in our imagination, shows us the power of wind, earth, water, sunshine and storm. She feeds us and we continually take what she has provided. " A peopled world it is; in size a tiny room". The world used to be a place where one could lose yourself in, but in modern times there is hardly any room to move where there are no people. "Burried beneath the glittering lake! Its place no longer to found, Yet the lost fragments shall remain, To fertilize some other ground". How much ground has been lost? The Glaciers melt, the polar ice caps are melting and in the process the ground that is being lost is fertilizing some other ground, mostly under water. The lakes, rivers and oceans are rising, and most people who have beach front property are losing their ground at an alarming rate. The emotions that people have is that of losing the home that they have built. Fear of the rising tide and finding their house in the middle of the ocean. Mother nature, in the future will try to reclaim the land from man/woman because we have not tried to work with nature to live in harmoney with it. We have taken for granted what she has given and we expect more, how much more can she give? If we could just sit back and enjoy what has been given we then can move more in harmoney with nature. Along with the warning I can see (from my memories) the flowers on the tundra in bloom, the clouds dancing in the blue sky, the sound of the water in the river moving on an endless journey toward the sea, those were the days in Alaska that I remember the most. No sound of people, no airplanes overhead, just the still and quiet of nature. People just need to stop and smell the roses and contemplate nature and the gifts that she can bring.
The "floating island" is that we are going away from nature and nature is going to reclaim what isn't ours by right, we are just custodians of the earth and if don't take care of it we are going to lose it out of our own carelessness.

Symbolism

It seems to me like everything Edgar does is at night. If anyone spends enough time in the woods and has experienced it at night it is a scary place. Shadows move, critters are out feeding and to be alone in the woods is even more so. Brown discribes a scene " We, at last, arrived at the verge of a considerable precipice. He kept along the edge"(pg 19 para. 1). If we look at it in a symbolic gesture, we can make a case for the precipice as being the formation of America. That is, the start of a new country apart from England. The revolution is done, the formation of a new country, we are feeling invinciable in that no other country in the world has been able to do what we (our forefathers) did. England at the time was the most powerful country on the planet and with the defeat of England they had to be feeling pretty good about themselves at that time. "The stranger kept along the verge of the cliff, which gradually declined till it terminated in the valley"(pg 19 para 2). The long steady decline of the cliff relates to the broken ties that we had with England. Before the war we traded with the mother land, they supplied things that we were not yet able to produce for ourselves and when the trail comes down off the cliff and ends in the valley that is when we have to fend for ourselves. The trail is full of sharp and rugged rocks and so the trail is not a smooth place to walk. The same could be said of Franklin's time in England, trying to get the king to see our independence. " He then proceeded to remove the stalks, which, as I immediately perceived, concealed the mouth of a cavern. He plunged into the darkness, and in a few moments, his steps were heard no more!"(pg 19 para 2). At this point America is born but, what to do now that we have our independence? We have no back up with England, we are at a most vunerable time in that anyone could come and attack us and take what ever they wanted. America for the most part could not withstand another war, the solders are tired, we didn't have the money to pay a military to fight. The stalks that Brown talks about is the red coats (England), they have been defeated and removed, and were heard no more.
As I read this book, I always got a sence darkness, no light, no color, everything is done at night. Another might have used the daylight to do his activities, shown more color in the woods, and had more flowers in the fields. Even in the mountains and forests here in Washington there are wild flowers and during the day the views are most impressive. Now having said that I don't think that changing the foreground would help the story. The times that he lived were terror filled. Starting anew not knowing what was to come next, he did capture the times in which he lived.

Terror and Horror

Terror, Terror is the person who sits in front of the window in the former Twin Towers and sees a jetliner coming straight at them. How does one council themselves knowing that death is at hand, afterall that is what ultimate Terror really is. What does one say to ones self knowing what is about to happen and do you really have peace in the presents of knowing? Do think about family and friends? In those last few seconds of life do you have any regrets about the argument that you had with that significant other that morning, did you kiss your child goodby? Do you and a brief second to comtemplate your mortality?
Watching it on TV, reading about it in the newspaper leaves its own Terror on those who are witness to such tradegy, not wanting to place themselves in others place, we still wonder what if.
Horror is related to those who are witness to the event and to those who lived it. The Horror for those on the ground is watching someone on the top floor jump knowing that they are about to die. The Horror for them is watching the tower fall and knowing that there are people still in the buliding knowing what fait lies for them. Horror for those in the building is contemplating what to do next. Knowing that all the exits are blocked and no way out what to do? I would imagine that for some that would be the most horrifying thing to think about, what to do. For some killing ones self is against their religion and of course god, but do you think that god will forgive this? Some people decided to jump from the building through their own choice in lew of the alternative of burning alive or suffocating from the smoke or even being buried under the millions of tons of rubble that once was the tower. The thought process that they must have gone through would be Horror all in itself.

clueless in english 372

what to say, what to say.....I graduate in the spring, I have a 10yr old son. I am more at home at work than in a classroom setting so to that end I try to keep to myself (doubt that will happen in this class). I work full time, take a full load of classes, and have my son most of the week so that keeps me busy. I do all of the manly stuff fish, hunt, camp and play poker online and on real tables.I am closer to the 50 mark than I like to admit, so most of the time I am stuck in the 70's and 80's realm, music and tv, movies ect.. I enlisted in the Army straight out of high school and served for 10yrs as a combat medical specalist. I like to learn new things which is why I took this class. something different something new, we'll see how that works out.