Ben”jammin”s ENG3U Blog

I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.

The eyes beside had wrung them dry,
And breaths were gathering sure
For that last onset, when the king
Be witnessed in his power.

I willed my keepsakes, signed away
What portion of me I
Could make assignable, and then
There interposed a fly,

With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,
Between the light and me;
And then the windows failed, and then
I could not see to see.

I heard a Fly buzz–when I died–…”

Analysis

The poem is written by Emily Dickinson. The speaker says that she heard a fly buzz as she lay on her deathbed. She then goes on to talk about how the room was as still and there is a storm outside. ”The eyes beside had wrung them dry,” Here you get the impression that there is lots of loved-ones around an that they have all said there good byes and cried their eyes out. Then when she said ”And breaths were gathering sure
For that last onset,”. This means she knows she is dieing as she gathers he last breath.

After this she said ”Be witnessed in his power. I willed my keepsakes, signed away What portion of me I” She is talking about the reading of her will and wishes and then all of a sudden the sound of a fly’s buzz catches her attention the . She was paying attention to this fly when it occurs that this is her last thought that runs threw her head as the light goes away from her eyes as she dies.

The theme in this poem show how life can be taken away so quickly and even at the most important moments of life such as death, you are easily distracted. It also symbolizes in this poem that the fly itself is death and that when it cuts of her light and her eyes its her time to go just like that. It shows there is nothing glorious about death.

The form in “I heard a Fly buzz” is a pattern that Dickinson usually uses: Iambic trimeter. She does not rhyming scheme in this poem and it is a free verse.

Anthology
“Success is counted sweetest…”
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple host
Who took the flag to-day
Can tell the definition ,
So clear, of victory,

As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Break, agonized and clear.

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers–…”

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune–without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

“I’m Nobody! Who are you?”
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us — don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

“The Soul selects her own Society–”

The soul selects her own society,
Then shuts the door;
On her divine majority
Obtrude no more.

Unmoved, she notes the chariot’s pausing
At her low gate;
Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling
Upon her mat.

I’ve known her from an ample nation
Choose one;
Then close the valves of her attention
Like stone.

“A Bird came down the Walk–…”
A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,–
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.

“I died for Beauty–but was scarce…”
I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
“For beauty,” I replied.
“And I for truth, -the two are one;
We brethren are,” he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.

“I heard a Fly buzz–when I died–…”
I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.

The eyes beside had wrung them dry,
And breaths were gathering sure
For that last onset, when the king
Be witnessed in his power.

I willed my keepsakes, signed away
What portion of me I
Could make assignable, and then
There interposed a fly,

With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,
Between the light and me;
And then the windows failed, and then
I could not see to see.

I heard a Fly buzz–when I died–…”

A bird came down the walk poem by Emily Dickinson- analysis

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.
He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,–
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head
Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home
Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.
The poem was written in iambic trimeter with occasional four syllable lines. The poem follows an ABAC rhyming scheme. The poem is also rhythmically broken up by long dashes. The dashes at the end of the lines mean that there are longer pauses.
Emily Dickinson depicts the bird as it eats the worm, as it pecks at the glass and drinks the water, and glances around fearfully. The bird becomes naturally frightened of the speaker and flies away. There is an interesting feature in the final stanza where Dickinson provides one of the best flying descriptions in all of poetry. Emily, in this stanza, compares flight using water motion ( swimming and rowing ) , which evokes the delicacy of moving through air. Conflict created when the will of an individual opposes the majority is the recurring theme of many novels, plays, and essays.

Emily Dickenson Biography

Emily Elizabeth Dickenson was born at the Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10th, 1830, into a prominent family. Emily attended primary school in a two-story building on Pleasant Street, Amherst. School was important in the Dickenson house as Emily’s parents always encouraged her to work hard in school and to learn. On September 7th, 1840, Emily moved on to Amherst academy.

During her youth and teenage years, Emily attended the academy for seven years. At the academy she studied English, classical literature, Latin, botany, geology, history, philosophy, and arithmetic.

Emily had a couple of major influences which had an impact on her writing. The first was an attorney names Benjamin Franklin Newton who the Dickinson family befriended. Newton introduced her to writings of William Wordsworth. He also gave her Ralph Waldo Emerson’s first book of collected poems which had a significant result. Newton taught her and held her in high regard and recognizing her as a poet. While Newton was dying of tuberculosis, he wrote to Emily saying that he hopes to live to see her achieve the greatness that he foresees. Another large influence in Emily’s life was William Shakespeare, who she commonly referred to.

During Emily’s adult years she became more and more secluded from the outside world, which was a result of a few occurrences of death within her relationships which were with Charles Wadsworth, and her mother. As Emily became more and more secluded from the outside world, it appeared her productivity when it came to writing poems increase significantly. Between 1858 and 1865 Emily wrote approximately 800 poems which nobody was aware of until the time of her death. The first half of the 1860’s, after she had largely withdrawn from social life, proved to be her most productive writing period.

During Dickenson’s later life she continued to write poems, although she stopped editing and organizing her poems because she not as acquainted with reality. At this time, Emily had a lot of close people to her who were dying and she became upset about this. In 1884 she wrote, “The Dyings have been too deep for me, and before I could raise my Heart from one, another has come”. The following summer, she fainted while she was baking in the kitchen. She remained unconscious late into the night and many weeks of illness followed. On May 15, 1886, after several days of worsening symptoms, Emily Dickinson died at the age of 55. Dickinson’s chief physician gave the cause of death as Bright’s disease and its duration as two and a half years.

Objectives:

Students will be able to recgonize the peoms of Emily Dickenson.

Students will be able to understand her life and where her poems came from.

Students will be able to analyse a peom based on the examples given.

Resources/Materials:

We didn’t use many materials, the only ones we are using are the computer, the internet and maybe a

camera if we decide to make a video.

Methodology:

First we will give the students the biographyof Emily Dickenson, then we will read outloud the poem anthology. Then will discuss the poems and how they are unique, this includes the analyes of three of those poems. That will end our lesson and be given a short quiz to make sure the students were paying attention.

Evaluation:

We will know the we have done our job based on the short quiz that will be given at the end of our lesson. 

 

Analysis of “Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson

Ben Cousins

 

            The author, Emily Dickinson, is the person speaking in this poem. She seems to be speaking to no one but herself. The tone is that of somewhat enlightening and happy. It seems that the author is talking about in generalities about hope rather than the poem being in a specific situation.

            The author gives you the constant image of a bird. Throughout the poem birds or things that birds do are referenced a total of 6 times. The poems talks of many things that birds do like sing gale, perch, etc. The image of a bird is that of a happy one it gives the reader the idea that hope is something that is kind and gentle.

            The theme of the poem is that hope is a good thing, something that everyone should have. It is nestled in everyone just they have to dig it out. The theme for this poem is evident because of the length of the poem and the constant description as to what hope is.

            Many of the words chosen are words used to develop the original metaphor “Hope is the thing with feathers, That perches in the soul”. This is obviously the comparison of hope to a bird. These words describe what a bird does, where it can be found, and how it reacts to hardship. The word abash more than likely means someone or something that makes you give up hope and want to give up.

            The sentence structure of this poem is one that is typical to many Emily Dickinson poems. The poem is that of iambic trimeter, this common among many of her poems. There are unusual things sentence wise that happen in this poem. The use of long poems is unusual for poets of her time “And sings the tune–without the”. Also she doesn’t seem to follow any sort rhyming pattern, while her lines also don’t follow any sort of length pattern either.     

The year is coming to and end and I am becoming lazier and lazier by the hour. These past couple of weeks, we have been in the computer lab working on various projects. I have little to no ambition to do anything in this class.  I am even personally surprised that I wrote this.

Paradise Cove Golf Course 

Paradise Cove Golf Course is the greatest and most private courses in the whole world. The only way to play on it is to go through a tough screening process in which only the truly dedicated golfers can attend. They would live there, play there and of course

Habitants

The people who live on the island get to play on golf course       7 days a week for free. Their only job is to keep the course is at its finest. They work everyday until their respective jobs have been completed, then they get the day off to do whatever they want, which is likely play the course.

Food

            The idea of food was one problem that the developers of the golf course had to overcome. Besides the fish and the mango plants there is truly nothing else available for the habitants. The location of the island was one thing that it had going for it. Because it is just 25 kilometres off the coast of Florida, twice a month a ship comes full of food and other supplies that they need like golf equipment and supplies for the houses. Each habitant receives the exact same amount of food and how they eat it is up to them.  

Newcomers

            Every year, 50-100 people are brought to this island to enjoy 5-10 of the greatest years of their life. This is the only day of the year in which no one works and there is a big celebration to welcome these newcomers. The habitants of the island order a ship full of treats and goodies for the feast of the night. People are assigned to show the newcomers around the island and their new homes. That day, newcomers get to play the course to get a feel for the course and its surroundings. 

The Island

The island is located off the coast of Florida, so the temperature is warm all year round. There are many palm trees and other tropical plants around the island.  There are a series of mountains in the corner of the island although no one goes there.

There are some problems with the location of the island. During hurricane season, many of these hurricanes hit this tiny island. There is no way to stop his so the habitants just hope for the best every start to the season. As a result of this, the habitants have to work extra hard after the hurricane hits to keep the houses and the golf course clean.

There are also somewhat dangerous animals on the island. The ocean has a few sharks, sting rays and jelly fish. Many people have trouble with the lizards although they are not dangerous.

Religion

It seems that the only religion the habitants practise is that of golf. But for those who practise their own religion there is a church on the island for anyone to practice any religion.

Government and Rules

            There is no formal leader; only the ones who have been around longest have seniority over the tasks around the island. There are very few rules that are different to the ones in North America only that in stead of going to prison you are sent home immediately. This rarely happens because the people that are sent to the island go through a very intense screening process done by the owner of the island, Ben Cousins. First island hopefuls have to write a 2-4 page essay as to why they deserve to live on the island. Then he chooses 200 people that are deemed acceptable, form there it is up to the citizens to determine the final 100 entrants.

Health

Health is a very important part of the life of the habitants to Paradise Cove. As said earlier, golf is an important means of keeping the health. The only boat that is docked on the island is for emergency health problems. Medicine is delivered on a monthly basis for those in need. Sporting equipment for other people is available, but only in limited amounts.

Why this is a Utopia

 This is my idea of a Utopia because I love the fact that everything is covered and that you can play golf every day. I don’t mind working on the course everyday as long as I can play the greatest course on earth.

yohana-land

The format might be little bit off, but that’s only because of edublogs, not me. 

 

Sam Spade: A Morally-Flawed Detective

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben Cousins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ENG-3UE-01

Rockland District High School

May 28, 2008

 

The novel, The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett is a famous detective novel written in the thirties. It tells the story of detective Sam Spade, a hard-nosed, secretive man who seems to have no true friends and many enemies. He comes across the story of the Maltese Falcon, a priceless artifact that has been lost for hundreds of years. Sam is hired to found this statue and return it to his employer for a large pay check. Sam Spade seems to be a little out there and his morals do not seem to be in the right spot. His hard-boiled detective persona goes over the edge to the point where it is hard to determine whether he is the good guy or the bad one. During the novel, Spade’s morals were come into question repeatedly and he often made the wrong decision or he would make the right one but for the wrong reasons. Spade was a bad detective because he ignored his morals.

Spade let attractive women get in the way of his job. There were occasions where he would choose to help these people based on their face and their body. This often put him in tough positions when the person’s looks got in the way of solving the case. Most of the time, he does not choose a case because his morals told him to but rather the looks of the person.

‘Well, don’t dynamite her too much. What do you think of her?’ ‘Sweet! And you telling me not to dynamite her.’ Archer guffawed suddenly without merriment. ‘Maybe you saw her first, but I spoke first.’ He put his hands in his trousers-pockets and teetered on his heels.

(Hammett, 10)

This is Sam and his partner, Miles Archer’s, reaction to Ms. Wonderly, a beautiful woman in need of little assistance. Her job is only for one or two days at the most. This is something that these two detectives don’t typically do but because she is very beautiful and the money is good they decide to help her out.

He got up and stood close behind her. He put his arms around her. He kissed her neck between ear and coat collar. He said: ‘Now Iva, don’t’ His face was expressionless. When she had stopped crying he put his mouth to her ear and murmured: ‘You shouldn’t have to come here today, precious. It wasn’t wise. You can’t stay. You ought to be home’

(Hammett, 26)

This is Spade consoling with Iva Archer, his partner’s wife after the murder of Miles. At this point Spade is having an affair with her. His affair put him at a tough position as he is now the prime suspect for the murder. Your morals have to greatly come into question if you have an affair with your lifelong partner’s wife. Yet he let temptation get the best of him again.

Sam Spade was a very greedy man. He didn’t care who he hurt or who he stole from in order to get what he wants. When it comes down to getting what he wants or doing the right thing, he will almost always choose getting what he wants. In the novel the temptations of great money were prominent throughout the novel and, in many cases; the moral decision was outweighed by the idea of riches. Gutman, Sam’s client offered him ten thousand dollars to find the Maltese Falcon. When he found it, Sam did not want to give it up because he realized that it was actually worth much more than that. Sam had a job to do and he was prepared to scam his client in order to get rich.

He put a hand down on the bird. His widespread fingers had ownership in their curving. He put his other arm around Effie Perrine and crushed her body against his ‘We’ve got the damned thing angel,’ he said

(Hammett, 159)

When Brigid came back to spade after the death of Thursby and Miles, she seemed quite shaken. She asked him for a little additional protection. Spade knew that she had a lot of money and decided to take advantage of that.

She went into her bedroom, returning almost immediately with a sheaf of paper money in one hand. He took the money from her, counted it, and said: ‘There’s only four hundred here.’ ‘I had to keep some to live on,’ she explained meekly, putting a hand to her breast. ‘You can’t get anymore?’ ‘No.’ ‘You must have something you can raise money on,’ he insisted. ‘I’ve got some rings, a little jewelry.’

(Hammett, 40)

She seemed clearly distraught because of the recent events and yet, Spade still demands more money from her. It seems as though she has already given Spade everything she has. When he realizes that he asks for her jewelry as a payment. It is morally terrible to do such a thing to someone who obviously shaken.

When the falcon turns out to be a fake and that all the work everyone in the story has done is for not; Gutman asks for his money back from Spade. He originally doesn’t want to give the money back but elects to be an honorable man. “‘I held up my end. You got your dingus. It’s your hard luck, not mine, that it wasn’t what you wanted’” (Hammett, 203). Gutman checks the money only to notice that a thousand dollars has been stolen from him. Spade admits to have taken it but only to “‘take care of my time and expenses’” (Hammett, 204) something that is against the policy of many detectives.

Sam only cares about himself and his own safety. His motto throughout the novel seems to be “as long as it’s not me I don’t care.” In the words of Wikipedia: “Sam Spade combined several features of previous detectives, most notably his cold detachment, keen eye for detail, and unflinching determination to achieve his own justice.” Underline mine (“The Maltese Falcon”). When he is informed of the death of Miles Archer, his longtime partner, he did not even spread an ounce of remorse for him. “Hello….Yes, speaking….Dead? …Yes….Fifteen minutes. Thanks” (Hammett, 11). This was the call Sam got to inform him if his partner’s death. It doesn’t seem as though he even feels remotely sad about his loss.

At one point during the novel, Spade feels as though the police will arrest him for two murders. But he has something to bargain with, the Maltese Falcon. Just as he is about to give Gutman the falcon, he demands to have someone to take the blame for the two murders, a fall guy. The police would likely figure out that the actual murderer is not him but he doesn’t care as long as his back has been covered he feels alright.

‘I’m not a damned bit afraid of them and I know how to handle them. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. The way to handle them is to toss them a victim, somebody they can hang the works on.’

(Hammett, 176)

He doesn’t care about the life of the fall guy that he could be ruining as long as he’s safe.

If Sam chooses to make the right decision, it is usually for the wrong reasons. When finally chooses to the thing that seems morally right, it comes clear that it was only because it will be for his safety or because it will make him look bad. Miss. Wonderly also known as Brigid O’Shaunessay confessed to the murder of Miles Archer, Spade is faced with a tough decision, either turn her in for murder and lose his relationship with her or not and keep her. He decides to turn her in, the moral decision. It becomes evident later that he only turned her in because it would have been bad for business.

“Well, when one of your organization gets killed it’s bad business to let the killer get away with it. It’s bad all around – bad for that one organization, bad for every detective everywhere.”

(Hammett, 214)

When Spade finally found the priceless figurine, we debated whether to give it to his employer, Gutman, or to keep it for himself and live in eternal happiness. He decided to give Gutman the figurine but only because he knew that Spade had it and that his life was on the line.

‘Naturally I wanted to see you as soon as I had the falcon. Cash customers- why not? I went to Burlingame expecting to run into this sort of meeting. [...] trying to get me out of the way so you could find Jacobi again before he found me.’

Brackets mine (Hammett, 173).

This was Spade’s excuse as to why he hadn’t given him the falcon earlier, while having a gun pointed to his back.

If you’re a detective, your ability to trust people and get them to trust you has to be one of your greatest attributes. It seems that Spade cannot trust anyone. He won’t get along with the cops or the crooks. He many instances he doesn’t seem to trust with the police. These men are supposed to be helping him but he doesn’t seem to trust them whatsoever.

‘You’ll tell it to me or you’ll tell it in court,’ Dundy said hotly. ‘This is murder and don’t you forget it.’ ‘Maybe. And here’s something for you not to forget, sweetheart. I’ll tell it or not as I damned please. It’s a long while since I burst out crying because policemen didn’t like me.’

(Hammett, 19)

This is early in the novel when two policemen come to his door ask him a few questions as to the deaths of Miles Archer and Floyd Thursby. A moral person would help the policemen with their investigation but not Sam Spade.

There is another point in the novel where the police come to his door to question him. He again doesn’t seem to have any desire to help them. This time, he refuses to let them in the door.

‘Don’t be a hog,’ he said. ‘You oughtn’t try to pin more than one murder at a time on me. Your first idea that I knocked Thursby off because he’d killed Miles falls apart if you blame me for killing miles too.’

(Hammett, 71)

The policemen seemed to only want to talk with him but again Sam cannot trust the police for anything.

It is not only the police that he can’t trust he also has an even worse time with the criminals. It seems that no one can be trusted. When Sam first meets Joel Cairo a man looking for the Maltese Falcon, Spade seems to not trust him completely and says nothing in mockery of Cairo. A fight breaks lose almost instantly.

Spade’s elbow dropped as Spade spun to the right. Cairo’s face jerked back but not far enough: Spade’s right heel on the patent-leathered toes anchored the smaller man in the elbow’s path. [...] the ruby-set green tie bunching out over his knuckles- while his right hand stowed the captured weapon away in a coat pocket.

Brackets mine (Hammett, 46).

Spade is not a very trusting man and a very aggressive man. When the two are combined morals are destroyed.

He even has trouble trusting the one person that has been helping him from the start of the novel, Brigid O’Shaunessay. Just as it seemed that they would run off into the sunset together, he turns her into to the cops for the murder of his partner. Even though Spade never really liked his partner (hence the affair with his wife), he felt that Brigid could no longer be trusted.

‘What of it? I should trust you? You who arranged that nice little trick for-for my predecessor, Thursby? You who knocked off Miles, a man you had nothing against, in cold blood, just like swatting a fly, for the sake of double-crossing Thursby? You who double-crossed Gutman, Cairo, Thursby? You who’ve never played square with me for half an hour at a stretch since I’ve known you? I should trust you? No, no, darling. I wouldn’t even if I could. Why should I?’

(Hammett, 212)

She didn’t really double-cross any of those people, she only killed Miles out of impulse and uncertainty. She was an honest woman who was left in a tough position. Spade knew this but still couldn’t trust her.

Well as you can see Sam Spade could have done a better job as a detective if he listened to his morals. He would have had more people helping him with cases. He would have more respect with his fellow detectives, policemen and even his suspects. There are instances throughout the novel where the case could have ended if he wasn’t so morally flawed. He only cared about himself and that was probably his biggest flaw.

 

Referances

•1.     Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon. 1st. New York: Vintage Books, 1930.

•2.     Wikipedia, “The Maltese Falcon.” Wkipedia. 2008. 28 May 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon>.

 

This week we were in the computer lab working on our projects for brave new world. I am very worried about these projects as our group for the video is experiancing trouble to say the least. And also the eutopia project is long but actually  quite fun i find. This coming week is very hectic as we have many things due that are very important and with rugby monday and wednesday and work thursday and friday It leaves me with tuesday to get it all done. We tried filming many times throughout the week only to have something come up.I seems that throughout this semester we have had many projects in which they were all due around the same week, I don’t mind the amount of projects just I wish they would be more spread apart. 

I didn’t really know how to do this so I looked on the blogs of other’s. And I saw Jon’s and It looked good so this is his format. 

Introduction (Description of storyline, history, etc.)

Thesis (Sam Spade was a terrible detective)

Reason ( He often let women get the best of him)

     Example ( He only decided to help Ms. Wonderly because of her looks)

     Example ( He was having an affair with his partner’s wife)

Reason ( He was very greedy)

     Example ( He tried his hardest to keep the Falcon even though he was hired by Gutman)

     Example ( He only gives back $9000 of the $10000 to Gutman)

Reason (He doesn’t seem to be one anyone’s side)

     Example (He won’t reason with the police)

          Example ( When the cops come to his door)

          Example (When they question him about the deaths of Miles Archer and Floyd Thursby) 

     Example(He won’t reason with the criminals) 

          Example (When he first meets Cairo)

          Example (Yet To Be Found)

Reason (He only does the moral thing when it will enventually help himself)

     Example (When he turns in Brigid O’Shaunessay)

     Example ( When he gives Gutman the Falcon.)

Conclusion (Well as you can see Sam Spade could have done a better job as a detective…)

Refrences:

Jon’s Blog

This week we were in the computer lab working on our projects for Brave New World. We have to make a video of a given topic, ours is Happiness through Consumption which means that you can only be happy with new things. We also have to make your idea of a eutopia  and describe how it is. We have the essay outline due on Tuesday and it should be up within the coming hours. That’s all folks!