~ Turtle Soup~ by Marilyn Chin

You go home one evening tired from work,
and your mother boils you turtle soup.
Twelve hours hunched over the hearth
(who knows what else is in that cauldron).

You say, "Ma, you've poached the symbol of long life;
that turtle lived four thousand years, swam
the Wet, up the Yellow, over the Yangtze.
Witnessed the Bronze Age, the High Tang,
grazed on splendid sericulture."
(So, she boils the life out of him.)

"All our ancestors have been fools.
Remember Uncle Wu who rode ten thousand miles
to kill a famous Manchu and ended up
with his head on a pole? Eat, child,
its liver will make you strong."

"Sometimes you're the life, sometimes the sacrifice."
Her sobbing is inconsolable.
So, you spread that gentle napkin
over your lap in decorous Pasadena.

Baby, some high priestess has got it wrong.
The golden decal on the green underbelly
says "Made in Hong Kong."

Is there nothing left but the shell
and humanity's strange inscriptions,
the songs, the rites, the oracles?

_________________________________________________________


Exploration of the Text:

1. Notice the author's choice of the word "cauldron" in line 4. What images or connection does this word evoke? Why might author have chosen "cauldron" rather than "pot" ?


This "cauldron" word is usually significance with the witch. So, this can be assume that the persona himself feel hesitate to eat this turtle soup because he does not know what are the ingredients inside. Besides, this might be cannot be accept in American culture which some places in the United State it is illegal to to capture and kill this creature.


2. Chin refers to "the Wei," "the Yellow", and "the Yangtze". Why does she reference these rivers in China? Why not include the Nile, the Amazon, or the Mississippi?

This is because the persona and her mother perhaps was immigrant from China, and this place is more familiar to them rather than talk about foreign places.


3. What is the tone of the family?

The tone of this poem is ridicule. The persona himself against the culture that his mother tried to maintain in themselves. This tone can be seen in "Ma, you've poached the symbol of long life; that turtle lived four thousand years, swam the Wet, up the Yellow, over the Yangtze.  Witnessed the Bronze Age, the High Tang, grazed on splendid sericulture."




Ideas for writing: "Sometimes you're the life,sometimes the sacrifice"


Being an immigrant is not an easy things. Some might think that this is enjoyable moment  since we can see new places and new cultures. But, have they ever thought that can we adapt with the new culture,new places, new environment and the most important thing is new life?  For some people it is very hard for them to leave their culture even though they have moved very far away from their motherland. For instance, most Malaysian love to eat durian and "tempoyak",but as we know these thing have very strong smell. So, can this culture be acceptable in the new place like in western country whom well known with their fussy behavior and hate this stinky odor? Some might accept and some might not. So, this immigrant need to adapt with this situation in case to be accepted in the society.


If we can see, there are a lot of unemployed immigrant. This is because many people thought that it is easier to get a job in foreign country rather than in their mother land. It is undeniable that some immigrant got a better life after they moved abroad, but no everyone as lucky as them. Some are getting worst compare to  their life before. They had to suffer and compete with the local people to get the job especially if they did not have higher qualification. Because of beautiful image that be told by people, they daring to leave everything they had without knowing the obstacles that they are going to face.


Relating the quote "Sometimes you're the life, sometimes the sacrifice" to the an immigrant family, "Sometimes you're the life.." means when we immigrate to another country, we may improve our life such as get the better  job, new culture and proudly be a citizen of that country.While the sacrifice is the culture and identity that one or in this case the family has to give in order to survive in the new land they called home or at least be accepted in the new land. For someone who had lived in such along time in one place and used with the culture, it is hard for them to just leave it behind after immigrant to other country. They have to choose either adapt with the new culture, or keep practicing their own culture  and willing to accept any perception from the local people. In the poem Turtle Soup, the persona's mother came from the Main Land which holds more than 5000 years of civilization while The States is a relatively new land. It is seems  hard for the mother to adapt with the new culture and leave the culture that she has been practiced for a long time.



Members: * Farid
               * Yvvone
               * Mira

~ Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note~ by Amiri Baraka

 


Lately, I've become accustomed to the way
The ground opens up and envelopes me
Each time I go out to walk the dog.
Or the broad edged silly music the wind
Makes when I run for a bus...

Things have come to that.

And now, each night I count the stars.
And each night I get the same number.
And when they will not come to be counted,
I count the holes they leave.

Nobody sings anymore.

And then last night I tiptoed up
To my daughter's room and heard her
Talking to someone, and when I opened
The door, there was no one there...
Only she on her knees, peeking into

Her own clasped hands

____________________________________________________

 Exploration of the Text:

1. What is the mood of the speaker in the opening lines? What images suggest his feelings?

*The mood of the speaker in the opening lines is depression. We can see the images of  of his feelings towards the words  "Lately,” “way”, “opens,” “envelopes,” “go,” “wind,” “run".


2. What is the significance of the daughter's gesture of peeking into " her own clasped hands"?

* It is significance to the praying gesture. This is means that the daughter is praying to God ,hoping that her father will never leave her alone.


3. What does the title mean? How does it explain the closing line?

* The title mean the persona is going to kill himself but not soon. And we can see the reason in the final two stanza which are  "he tiptoes upstairs, hearing his daughter talking. “…and when I opened / The door, there was no one there…” These stanza give us the message that the persona canceled his attention to commit suicide after he saw his daughter.


4. Why does Baraka have three short lines , separated as stanzas? How do they convey the message of the poem?

* These three short lines means it is the conclusion for each stanza and what had happened. The message of the poem can be seen for example in line " Things have come to that" which it tells us that the poet have decides what he has to do.


5. Why does Baraka begin stanzas with "Lately", " And now", and " And then"? What do these transition words accomplish?

* This because he wants us to look the poem in chronological order which every event took place. These transition had succeed to make me understand the poem in orderly.


6.  How does the speaker feel about his daughter? What does she represent to him?

* The speaker feel very responsible towards his daughter which she is the main reason why he canceled his intention to commit suicide. She represent the responsible that he has to keep on. Besides,for him to keep living despite the drudgery of other parts of his life. She is the one who loves him and whom he loves , means they need each other to survive.

~The Song of Freedom~

This is the song?
The song of freedom that can never be hear,
Only the sound of ruination keep playing,
This war is endless.

Sshh.I'm here for you,
Oh my dear,let me wipe your tears,
Your hand is too small,yet it holding such a huge weapon,
Where's the humanity that we keep sing about??

How strong you are to face this huge test,
You, are such an innocent child,
A bullet in your forehead,
Is that what we called as HUMANITY??

You deserve to be in the Paradise dear,
O Allah, please,please place all our heroes,
In the place that You have promised,
Which is the beautiful Heaven.

Aamin Ya Rabbal Alamin.

* This is my response towards  Naomi Shihab Nye's poem, All Things Not Considered. When i read this poem, my mind keep not stop from imagine how was my brothers and sisters doing in Palestine while i am here, in this peaceful country. So, i start google for the news in Palestine, and suddenly I saw the picture of a child with a bullet on his forehead. It makes me really upset and angry towards the heartless people there.

The Daffodils by William Wordsworth

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.

~::Incident::~ by Countee Cullen

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart - filled, head - filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean,
Keep looking straight at me.


Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue and called me, "Nigger"

I saw the whole of Baltimore,
From May until December:
Of all things that happened there
That's all that I remembered.



Exploration of the Text:

1. What is the nature of the interaction between the two boys?

 As the kid, we used to communicate with the people around us,especially when we live in neighbourhood
In this poem, it is natural that the persona want to communicate with the person that he saw even with just give the smile.


2. Why does the speaker remember nothing than the incident, even though he stayed in Baltimore from " May until December" ?

This is what we called as behaviorism. In this theory, when a person face  with the certain experience that cannot be forget,it will effects his behavior.And, in this poem ,the persona feel disturbed by the word "Nigger" and he cannot forget that.

The Reading / Writing connection:

1. In a paragraph compare your experience of prejudice with the persona in the poem.

In my experience of feeling prejudice, I will easily feel prejudice toward the Bangladesh men. This is because I was told that these Bangladesh men loved to tease and disturb woman even though she is a married woman. It makes me really in scare especially when I have to be in the lift with them.

Ideas for writing:

1. What do its form and rhyme add to this poem?

  

The rhyme scheme in the first stanza is A,B,C,B. The second stanza has a rhyme scheme of A,B,C,D,B. The last stanza has a rhyme scheme of A,B,C,B. This poem repeats the words Baltimore and filled twice.

2. What is the power of language? What are the effects of the use of the term nigger?


Language is the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way.  How powerful the language is depends on how it delivered. For example,  if the language is use with full of manner,it can attract other people to get close wit us. But, if we use it harshly,  it can hurts other people's feeling. So, in this poem, the persona get offended by the word nigger that have been speak to him because it seems as a humiliation towards him.
In A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), H. W. Fowler states that applying the word nigger to "others than full or partial negroes" is "felt as an insult by the person described, & betrays in the speaker, if not deliberate insolence, at least a very arrogant inhumanity"; but the second edition (1965) states: "N. has been described as 'the term that carries with it all the obloquy and contempt and rejection which whites have inflicted on blacks.'".



References:

1. http://hanifrahm.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/teori-behavioral-dan-kognitif/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger
3, https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+language&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=fflb

~:: The Apple of My Eyes ::~

                       
 I see the green and green,
 My eyes catch the squirrel on the tree.

My heartbeat keep beating till the time come,
But my eyes filled with seawater,
No more longer sunlight on their faces,
Just a glance without light.

While over the green, i saw the Red coming,
My heart shout, STOP! STOP! STOP!.
He's my brother, she's my sister,
I keep shouting until its raining

I'm laying there, breath deeply,
Suddenly everything get clear and i'm just sigh.

Mini Outline for the poem All things Not Considered

 This is my mini outline and note of poem All things Not Considered ^_^

• Why The Jewish and Arab women standing silently without doing anything?
• 'Generation of black' is symbolize for death, evil,stupidity, cruel and scary.
• "He kneeled to help someone else stand up before he was shot" - really proud and impressive with this man.
• " At certain point the flawed narrator wins" is it mean United States of America and Israel?
• Using war as the solution,so the conclusion is death.
• What she means by " The curl of a baby's graceful ear'' ?
• The injustice was obviously can be seen when Israel got help and support from other country such weapon while Palestine got nothing

Women in Poetry : ~Sylvia Plath~

~..Sylvia Plath..~  (1932-1963)

Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts. She  is a writer whose life has generated unusually keen interest.  I value  Sylvia  Plath's work as an artist , and believe she strikes a responsive chord in her readers and many can see in her very popular novel,  The Bell Jar. Nowadays, many high school and college students are required to read The Bell Jar .

  Sylvia first work that have been published was  The Colossus . Beside  The Bell Jar, her most impressive work is Ariel poems. Even though at first she received a little criticism , the critics finally reread her work because they was impressed with the technical excellence and the emotional intensity of her late poems. Through all of her writing, poetry and fiction, her attention remains fixed on death and disintegration with occasional explorations of their alternatives. In these poems, Plath achieved her finest means of expression and states most successfully the themes which her writing have expressed from the beginning. In 1982, Plath became the first person to win a posthumous Pulitzer Prize.

      The Bell Jar was written in 1963 which is the same year as her death,was actually based on her true story after she  was left by her husband,the poet Teg Hughes for another woman. She felt very depress.  Struggling with her mental illness, she wrote The Bell Jar her only novel, deals with one young woman's mental breakdown. Plath published the novel under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. She also created the poems that would make up the collection Ariel (1965), which was released after her death. Sylvia Plath committed suicide on February 11, 1963 

From my point of view, she steers clear of feminine charm, gentility, super sensitivity and the act of being poetess. She simply writes good poetry.  And, she does so with a seriousness that demands only that she be judged equally seriously.  Bernard Eergonzi in the Guardian said ' It shows what a remarkable talent she already possessed and is a very satisfying volume in its own right.'

Among of her famous poems:      * Frog Autumn
                                                * Ariel
                                                * The Shrike
                                                * Ode for Ted
                                                * Child

Poem: All things Not Considered

From my opinion, this poem is about how the people in Palestine suffering from war which caused a big amount of death. The poet, Naomi Shihab Nye who had lived in Jerusaleem had seen these horrible drama herself and could feel the depression,disappointment and anger of Palestinian. So, she describe these feeling onto this poem. The line "A brother and sister were playing with toys when their room exploded" totally touched my heart because she told us about how cruel the Israel's army is even towards the kids. Besides, "In what language is this holy",the poet asked if this cruelty is honourable action and can be accepted by anyone?

In the second stanza, " The Jewish boys killed in the cave were skipping school, having an adventure." tell us that while many Palestinian children were killed by the army, the Jewish boys are enjoying themselves deadly. How unfair the world is. The war that started by the Israel is just a 'drama' which the reality is they trying to eliminate the Muslim in Palestine and conquer it because as we all know, there is no such country name ISRAEL.

In this poem, the poet also tell us that war is not good at all. As we can see, war have caused a lot of loss in case of money, time, properties, and the most important thing is LIFE. Many Palestinian lost their family members in front of their own eyes which this will cause deep depression along their life and take very long time to be heal. " I spit in the face of this ugly world" says by an Arab father on crutches burying his 4 month girl can describe his feeling towards this cruel world. " Picking up things to throw and shoot: at the same time people were studying history ,going to school." is talked about how we,which is not being in Palestine and facing the war, are being fooled by the history and ignored the truth.